ASIANish

We left Kuala Lumpur and headed to the beautiful island of Langkawi, which is one of the popular travel destinations in Malaysia.

After a 1 hour flight we arrived at the terminal in Langkawi, which was surprisingly much nicer than the terminal at Kuala Lumpur. Although the taxi situation isn't as dire as in Kuala Lumpur, we still had to book a taxi at a booth inside the airport before hailing a cab (30 ringgits = $8.57 USD). Actually, rental cars are pretty popular in Langkawi because the driving laws in Langkawi are fairly loose. However, a rental car is still 150 ringgits/day ($44 USD) and with cabs, you don't have to find parking, find gas, or worry about getting lost.

The Westin Resort & Spa: Langkawi, Malaysia

The cab ride from the airport to the hotel was just under 40 minutes. As we got out of the cab, one of the bell boys rang a gong announcing our arrival. It was a nice touch and evoked that "island" feeling. The check-in was very reminiscent of our trip to Cambodia where we were seated down on one of the many couches in the lobby and the receptionist would gather our information for check-in. While we waited for our hotel key cards, we were given moist cold towels to cool down, as well as a lightly flavored apple cinnamon drink to quench our thirst.

The rooms were nice and spacious, but weren't nearly as nice as the resort in Cambodia, and slightly less spectacular than our room at the Crown Plaza in Kuala Lumpur.

After a nice stroll on the beach to check out the Westin Resort grounds, we were hungry and were eager for some dinner.

Selamat Datang: Bamboo Beach Restaurant

We were craving some Malay food and asked the hotel concierge to recommend a nice "local" place near the town. We saw a well lit plaza earlier that had some restaurants and shops, and we figured we could take a nice stroll around town after dinner. The bell boy hailed a cab, and we were off to the waterfront restaurant, Selamat Datang: Bamboo Beach.

We thought the restaurant was in town, but a few minutes down the road, we had pass the town and took a right-turn down a fairly remote looking road. It was a paved road that went up and down a steep hill that was dimly lit by very yellow street lamps. On the sides of the road were just dirt and jungle vegetation. Needless to say, Eleanor and I were getting a little concerned that we might be waylaid at the end of our ride. 10 minutes and several unlit buildings later, we finally turn into a crowded parking lot and arrive at Selamat Datang: Bamboo Beach restaurant.

At first we thought we were at a tourist stop because of the two big buses parked in the parking lot. However, after helping ourselves to a seat in the back over looking the pitch black ocean, we quickly realized most of the people eating around us were locals.

While waiting for the cashier who was the only english speaker working at the restaurant, we took note of the less than pristine tables, floor, and chairs, and the few ferrel cats helping themselves to the leftovers of the recently vacant tables. But we weren't deterred because we were hungry and the food actually looked pretty appetizing, minus the cats. 15 minutes later, the english speaking cashier brought us menus and a few minutes after that we were ready to order.

Of course we asked about the popular dishes and of course we were pitched the fresh fish and seafood, and of course they were reluctant to disclose the price until we asked. So we ended up ordering the following:

• Chicken soup (tasted more like tom yum soup)
• Garlic beef (the beef was chewy like rubber)
• Fried kangkang vegetables (stir-fry kong xin chai)
• 300 grams of giant prawns stir fried with chili paste

Malay food is a conglomeration of all types of cuisines, but these dishes definitely had more of a Thai flavor to them. Although the beef was a bit chewy, all the flavors in each dish were wonderful! All in all, a great meal and only for 45 ringgits ($12.85 USD).

Full of food, we headed back to the Westin, borrowed a DVD, "American Gangster", from the entertainment library, and finished off the night relaxing in our room.